The Tehran Conference

November 1943 

Whenever I think of the Tehran Conference, I always imagine dreary November weather — darkness and rain. In fact, everything was probably quite different in Iran at the time. For all I know, a warm sun was shining. But to me, it still seems that, at that moment, everything was dark and depressing, neither a golden autumn nor a snowy December, although the meeting of the Big Three did fall on the last days of November and the first day of December. That is just how I imagine the gloom and horror of the World War that stretched across several continents. Although the turning point had already come, and the allies meeting in Tehran understood that they were on the road to victory, the world was a horrible place back then, and so much horror still lay in store for mankind.

During those November days of 1943, when Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill flew to neutral Tehran, the fronts were generally quiet. The brutal Soviet offensive to retake Ukraine was over. Two months of harrowing battles had allowed them (those who survived the meat grinder) to advance across the Dnieper. General Zhukov then fed thousands more needless victims into a new meat grinder so that he could free Kiev by November 6th – a gift to Stalin on the anniversary of the revolution. By the end of November, Kiev had been in Soviet hands for almost a month. The troops had already marched up the decimated Khreshchatyk, Kiev’s main thoroughfare, and the remains of more than 100,000 Jews had been found, exterminated at Babi Yar.

Now, a few weeks had passed, and in Tehran, Stalin informed his allies that Soviet troops had reached Zhitomir, but they lacked sufficient forces and the offensive was being halted. The first time I read this I felt a lump in my throat. Relatives of my grandfather were still in Zhitomir at the time – I am not sure how many. I remembered stories about grandfather’s cousin Sonya, who dreamed of becoming an actress and musician. During the German occupation, she had a job cleaning a public bathhouse. The day before the Germans withdrew, a neighbor informed them that a Jew was working in the bathhouse. Sonya was shot. There were also stories about my grandmother’s girlfriends living in a small town nearby. In 1941, they had simply refused to flee. They had heard that, during the First World War, the German officers had been true gentlemen with the ladies, very gallant and generous with flowers and candy. It seems unlikely that any of them were still alive when the Big Three met in Tehran to discuss their course of action. 

And there was plenty to talk about. Almost all of Europe was still in Hitler’s hands, but it was clear that this would not last, so the conference, which on the surface was a cordial and friendly meeting of allies, was actually a meeting between future rivals in the Cold War. Whether or not Roosevelt understood that, I do not know. He was not as weak as he was in Yalta in 1945, but he only had two years left to live. Churchill and Stalin were well aware that, over the coming years, the situation would change. Of course, they had to first focus on defeating Hitler, but they also had their eye on who would exercise dominion over the expanse of Europe. It was this ambivalence that gave the meeting in Tehran its particular drama. This was supposed to be a conference between like-minded leaders advancing toward a common victory. They shook hands, smiled, gave each other valuable gifts, and raised their glasses in toast to one another. But when it came to the most important thing – opening a Second Front in Europe – the meeting’s subtext bubbled to the surface. 

Stalin’s interpreter, Valentin Berezhkov, recalled how he bore the brunt of the anger Stalin could not express toward Churchill. The British Prime Minister calmly and convincingly argued that the allied troops could make their best landing in the Balkans, rather than Normandy, as Stalin was suggesting. Everyone understood that this was not just a matter of military operational details, but about what part of Europe would be taken by the Red Army. An Allied landing in the Balkans did not fit with Stalin’s plans. 

“Tell him…,” Stalin hissed at Berezhkov, grabbing him by the ear and pulling him closer every time he began to lose his temper. Berezhkov’s ear, pinched and twisted by the fingers of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, was swollen and painful, but of course objecting was out of the question. The interpreter had already gotten himself in trouble by starting to chew a piece of meat at lunch at the very moment when his services were needed. Now he would have to interpret through his pain and not allow his diplomatic etiquette to falter.

As is well known, it was Roosevelt who resolved the question of the second front. As he explained to his son, who accompanied him to Tehran, his primary concern was the interests of the American soldiers. The desires of Churchill and “Uncle Joe” would have to come second. Having been assured by the military leadership that a landing in Normandy would be less dangerous, Roosevelt came over to Stalin’s side. 

Eastern and Central Europe would remain communist for almost a half century.

The decision was made, and the Big Three parted ways, lavishing smiles and cordialities on one another. Throughout occupied Europe, people awaited salvation. The ovens of Auschwitz were still working around the clock. Partisans were preparing for their next operations. Hitler was pondering how to keep his allies in line, as they were becoming less reliable with every month.

The war would continue for another year and a half. Roosevelt would not live to see its end. Churchill would face perhaps the greatest humiliation of his life – the defeat of his party in the first post-war elections. Stalin would be alive another ten years – until that March day when doctors reached him too late. Or perhaps he perished at the hands of members of his inner circle. 

Valentin Berezhkov returned from Tehran with the prospect of being admitted to Stalin’s inner circle. It was discovered after the liberation of Kiev, however, that his parents and sister had disappeared, and there was suspicion that they had left with the retreating Germans. It was a devastating blow to the interpreter’s career. He might not only lose his job, but his freedom. Fortunately, Berezhkov was not arrested, but he was forced to find completely different work. After Stalin’s death, it was discovered that the interpreter’s parents had indeed fled to Germany, from where they managed to reach America. Surprisingly, this did not prevent Berezhkov from eventually returning to work at the Foreign Ministry and becoming a respected diplomat, lecturer, historian, and author of memoirs about the Tehran summit, which people read with such eagerness that they literally tore the book from one another’s hands. Years passed, and in 1983 the interpreter’s son, Andrei, refused to return with his parents from America, declaring his hatred for the Soviet Union. He even signed his letter to the U.S. authorities, “Andy Berezhkov.” His father finally convinced the boy to return home, and soon perestroika began, allowing “Andy” to travel the world as a businessman. He did not enjoy that opportunity for long – in 1993 he was murdered in his own office.

Five years later, in 1998, his father died in California – the last witness (at least on the Russian side) to the events that unfolded in 1943 in Tehran. His entire life he had been forced to recall those days – working on his memoirs, giving lectures, answering the questions of the curious. He forever remained the man who had been there when the Big Three had turned the wheel of history.